


Acting Out

by Holidayskipper



Category: Riverdale - Fandom
Genre: Acting, Actors, Betty Cooper & Toni Topaz Friendship, F/M, Jughead Jones Needs a Hug, Jughead Jones is Not Asexual, Love, Love Confessions, Protective Jughead Jones
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-10-29 01:58:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17798954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holidayskipper/pseuds/Holidayskipper
Summary: Betty Cooper has been acting since she was 6, Jughead has a passion for acting but isn’t very well-rounded.When they have to film some intense scenes, will they be able to keep control of themselves?





	1. Table reads

Betty still got nervous when she had to meet the cast, despite the fact that she’s been acting since she was 6. 

This specific time the way she was going to meet the cast is by a dinner party. Everyone who will be working on the show will go to said party, eat, mingle, and try to build a friendship with their colleagues.

Ever since she was a little girl she absolutely hated the first two or so weeks of filming. There was never any chemistry and you awkwardly sat around set while making subtle attempts to talk to the people you’ll be working with for god knows how long. 

Betty was the last one there. She had gotten stuck in traffic and stopped by at least three fans on her way here.   
Great first impression. She thought. 

They had little cards with names placed on the table and the name next to hers was fairly peculiar, Jughead Jones. Who names their kid Jughead? Underneath his name it was his characters name, Derek Robinson, Graces love interest. 

Betty had only been delivered her lines early in the morning but she had been going over them on the ride here to familiarize herself with some of the characters. 

She’s mildly embarrassed over being the latest person here but decides to own it. As soon as she takes her seat people come up and greet themselves to her. 

“Hey, I’m Jughead,”  
Jughead was much hotter than his name sounds.   
“I’m pretty sure you don’t know me, but I’ll be your co-star!” 

He stuck out his hand, waiting on me to take it. 

“Well Jughead, I’m betty and you probably know who I am.”   
She hoped that didn’t sound too stuck up. 

“I’m pretty sure everyone knows who you are, you have a pretty wide audience.” He said finishing it off with a chuckle. 

That was true, Betty did have quite the audience. She had been in multiple Disney Channel things, been in countless movies and tv shows with completely different genres, Hell, she even was a voice actress in a Tim Burton movie! 

“I guess you could say that.” 

Their attention was pulled by the main producer clicking his fork against his champagne glass. “Feel free to eat as much as you want and make sure you have fun today because we start table reads tomorrow!” Betty sighed. 

“What? You don’t like table reads?” A smirk was plastered on his face. 

“No, nothing like that. It’s just table reads stress me out a little.” His eyebrows clench together as if they were asking for more information. “I think it’s because when I don’t have a speaking part for awhile I kind of zone out and end up missing my part.” He laughed. 

 

“So, I’ll see you then?” It wasn’t really a question, she knew he’d be there because it was obviously his job. 

“You know it!” 

***  
When she got home she was exhausted from meeting everyone. She had to meet all of her fellow cast members, producers, editors, the director and so many other people  
Who she can’t even remember. 

Just as she’s laying down for bed her phone flashes.   
V: so who’s your favorite?  
B: my what?  
V: your favorite person you met?  
B:I don’t have favorites   
V: oh come on, that’s bull. You always have a favorite  
B: No I don’t!  
V: me and Archie were the favorites   
B: whatever, I’m going to go to sleep now and I don’t need interruptions😘  
V: I’ll find out eventually

Betty knew if she had to pick a favorite it would probably be between Toni and Jughead. She had really enjoyed both of their short lived conversations. 

Her and Jughead had a semi normal conversation, and her and Toni had talked about how they got into the acting business and Toni’s situation was similar to Bettys. 

They both had to go into the business before their teen years because of money issues and been severely pressured into it. 

Not that Betty doesn’t love acting, she does, it’s given her everything she could ask for and so much more, but sometimes she wonders what it would be like if she had lived a normal adolescence. She’s probably just be getting out of college by now. 

 

It was already 1 AM and she still hadn’t gone to bed, she’d definitely regret this in the morning when she’ll have to wake up at an ungodly hour. Therefore Betty lies down and lets sleep takeover.

***  
“Shit, shit, shit!” Betty had overslept her alarm and would have to rush to get there on time. 

She glanced at the clock, 7:45. That means she has 10 minutes until she has to be out the door. 

Usually people exaggerate and say they “threw their clothes on” but there is literally no other way to describe what Betty did. She ran to her closet grabbing the nearest pair of skinny jeans and a pastel pink sweater. She didn’t have any time to do anything to her hair or face so she plopped it up in a ponytail and plastered some mascara and lipgloss on. 

Betty really didn’t have time to second guess if she’d left anything because she was already running slightly late. 

She stepped into some slides and ran to her car, throwing her purse into the passenger seat, wasting no time to pull out of the driveway and get on the road. 

She slipped right into the room without anyone noticing-hopefully- according to the time they were supposed to start in a few minutes so she technically wasn’t late. 

Table reads are so much more important than anyone knows. It’s where you get to read the script beginning, middle, to end and make sure everything makes sense(including the people who play the characters) Betty has never been cut from a project simply because of her delivery at the table read but she’s seen it happen before. 

On her third movie there was a guy with no work ethic and he thought that just because he made it this far it meant he was guaranteed a spot, but that obviously wasn’t the case. 

James (producer) stood up and began talking.   
“Does everyone understand what to do?”   
Everyone was silent but there was a collective amount of nods and “mhm’s” 

“Okay then let’s get started...” 

***  
“You didn’t zone out.” A voice stated.   
She turned and it was the one and only Jughead Jones.   
“You did good!” 

“Thank you, but I have a potentially embarrassing question.” Betty had still just met Jughead but he seemed like someone she could get along with.   
“Go for it!” He showed a stray hair from his beanie away from his face.   
“What exactly are we supposed to do tonight?” What was tonight?

“Excuse me?” What the heck did he mean. 

“You didn’t read your email you got this morning did you?” His eyes were squinted as if trying to figure me out but seemed to get his answer when my eyes got wide. 

I pull out my phone and read the email I got at 6:00 today. 

Dear Elizabeth Cooper,   
I have pulled some strings to let the cast have a get together on set overnight! You will be given 3 sets of papers describing your characters, two pairs of clothing your character would wear and the entire acting staff to communicate with. 

The objective of this day will be to stay in character as much as possible. There are no rules except for staying in character as long as you can and if you break it, you get right back in! 

Hopefully this will give you a sense of who your character is and help you give them a personality. 

You should be on set around 7-8 PM and you will be ready to become Grace!   
Sincerely, James 

“Oh. I guess it’s supposed to be like an improve camp. Have you ever been to one?” 

“Nah, I’m still kinda new to this, I only have like 6 jobs under my belt and none of them were very successful.” Betty briefly wonders why none of them had been successful and what jobs he had. 

“Hopefully this show will be successful!” She believed it would, it had a pretty good storyline, punk girl gets new popular neighbor, punk girl and popular guy become friends and end up falling in love. 

“I better go, I like getting a proper amount of sleep before a new job.” Why was She slightly disappointed? 

“Ok, see you tomorrow!”


	2. Movie Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They begin their improv day, and end by talking about movies.

Today was one of the rare occasions Betty actually woke up on time. She gets up and decides to straighten her hair, even though the hair and makeup team will destroy it. 

She’s not 100 percent sure what she should wear since she’s going to be changing anyways, so she goes for something comfortable. A pair of leggings and the first T-shirt in eyeshot.

It’s 8:00 now and she’s almost ready. Her hair is practically crimped, she has on her costume and she has gathered all of her papers. The only thing holding her back is the hair and makeup staff trying to fix her already perfectly crimped hair. 

They give them advice on how to act and what their characters interests are. It lists all of the characters and it describes their relationship with Grace. 

It will never seize to amaze Betty how people can just make up characters like that with so much detail. 

Jughead walked into the hair and makeup trailer.   
“Good mornin’ Betty!” 

“Good morning to you Jughead!” Her eyes follow him through the mirror as he sits down in the empty chair next to her. 

“Do you have any idea what to do today?” Truth be told she wasn’t exactly sure what to do. She had ideas but still not sure. 

“Honestly no. I figure we’ll have to go to several sets and just improvise our way through life.” 

Just then both of their phones flashed, signaling an incoming message, judging by the fact both of them got it, it’s probably work related. 

Just as she had suspected it was from one of her co-stars, Josie.   
J: ALL cast members please go to stage 4!

If Betty remembers correctly stage 4 should be the schools lounge room. “Walk with me?”  
He replies with only a slight nod.  
***  
After their supervisor told them a rundown of what would be happening it was slightly awkward. Nobody had an idea what to start off with and nobody was attempting to speak. 

After about two long minutes of silence Reggie-playing Mike- broke it. “So Grace, how’s your new found love with our Derek goin’ for ya?” 

“Since when did you talk to me, Mike?” Betty tried to exaggerate his name to gift some sass to Grace. 

“Since you started fucking my best friend every night!” Classic teenage drama. 

“Okay, Mike! You know it’s not like that!” Derek chimed in. 

“Oh? So you haven’t fucked?” She really didn’t know if they had or hadn’t, but it was improv and she was going to go with answers that couldn’t be determined one way or another. “That’s none of your damn business! What me and Derek do is about us!”   
She hopped out of her seat and started to get an adrenaline rush. She loved this part, the part when you get completely sucked into a character and everything about you starts to react to the situations that your character is going through. 

“Why do you hate me so much Mike? Is it because you want the best for Derek, or did my best friend break your heart?” In this situation Grace would be referring to Tiffany-Toni’s character- she had been dating Mike but also cheating on him with another guy, eventually Mike walked in on Tiffany and said guy “doing it” and they ended things. 

“Okay, I have no idea how to draw this out anymore so... scene?” 

***   
It was 3 AM, Betty couldn’t sleep, and here she was, with Jughead, just talking about anything and everything. 

“What’s your favorite movie?” His eyebrows stitch together and it’s obvious he’s thinking carefully.   
“The silence of the lambs.”   
Betty loved that movie, so she figured she’d throw a quote at him to test his knowledge on the movie. 

“Why do you think he removes their skins, Agent starling? Enthrall me with your acumen.” Her mouth is slightly open and she’s licking her lips, waiting for a reply. He plays along. “It exited him. Most serial killers keep some sort of trophies from their victims.” 

“I didn’t.” She replies, acting as if she was dr Hannibal Lecter. 

“No, no you ate yours.” She tried to hold in her laughter for courtesy of others, but she couldn’t help it. 

“Is that your favorite quote in the movie?” He asks. He looks really involved in this conversation, focusing all of his attention on her. 

“No, my favorite quote is when Hannibal says a census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.” They laugh once more. 

“What about you, what’s Betty Coopers favorite movie? Wait, let me guess, breakfast at Tiffany’s?” She shakes her head. “Er...Fried green tomatoes?” Betty puts her hand to her chest and gasps. “Really? You think I liked that movie, it sucked!” 

Jughead surrendered, Putting his hands up. “Fine I give.” 

“My favorite movie is The Shining.” Heat rose to Bettys cheeks, making her blush. 

“The horror movie with the infamous here’s Johnny scene?” Her bottom lip is in between her teeth and she’s shaking her head up and down. 

“But why?” He had only seen the movie once, he was 17 and at the twilight drive in, but he had never found a need to watch it again. 

“I think it’s the slow build up of suspension that makes you have so many emotions and, I don’t know, I just love it.” The stray ear that Betty had was now being tucked behind her hair. 

It was Jugheads turn to ask a question. “If you could be in one movie, what would it be and why?” 

“You love giving me hard questions don’t you?” He laughed and Betty figured she could continue now. 

“Maybe Mary Poppins. I’d love to be able to interact with animated creatures. Also that damn purse! Do you know how much easier that could make my life! Anywho, what would your choice be?” 

Jugheads choice is something every kid probably thinks at least once.   
“The Avengers, I’d want-“ he was immediately interrupted.   
“Really? The Avengers?!? That’s what you’d choose!”   
Apparently she’s very passionate about NOT choosing the Avengers. 

“What? I’d want to be a superhero, I think that’s better than associating with drawings of penguins!” Her mouth flew open. “For your information, it’s not just penguins.” Jughead erupted with laughter, but Betty acted as if she wasn’t amused. 

When she leaned back on the headrest she had time to look at her surroundings and when she looked at the window, there was the sun. All bright and happy. 

“It’s already sunrise Jughead!” Neither of them thought they had talked for that long. 

“We really talked all night long about movies, I mean I don’t regret it but.” She interrupted him again.   
“Yet. It’s 6:30 and we haven’t slept a wink. We are supposed to put in a 20 hour day tomorrow!” 

“Just sleep as much as you can and you’ll be fine.” People in the acting business need to get used to not sleeping much, but it’s usually a good idea to get a good nights sleep the night before your first day. 

“Whatever! I don’t know about you but ummm going to sleep now.” She threw a pillow at him, layed in bed, and let sleep settle in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was chapter 2!


	3. Day One

By the time Betty has finished hair and makeup she was already wishing she was back in bed. 

Her first scene would be her and Toni playing as Grace and Tiffany. They’d be talking about extra curricular activities they could do for the upcoming year when Toni changes the subject to her new neighbor. 

She fluffs her hair up and flips it around. She always tried to look her absolute best when getting ready to be on camera so that she didn’t become a meme again. 

She was still in her trailer because she wasn’t sure how they ran things around here. Some places would have a set time that you had to be there, and others always sent a person or text to tell you to get on set. 

Betty is pretty sure that her scene is the first of the day. She isn’t very fond of that because it’s when everyone is tired and their three cups of coffee hasn’t set in yet. 

As soon as Betty hears the hard knocks on the door she whispers to herself, “they send people.” 

Her door pops open and Toni sticks her head through the open part. “They want us in 5!”

She liked Toni. She seemed like a really sweet person.   
“Thank you Toni, I’ll be here in a sec!” 

Betty brings her phone a book, and of course her script with her to set. There’s a lot of downtime and she has learned that if you don’t have anything to keep you occupied you’ll get bored, fast. 

When she was introduced to her room it was substantially different from her teenage room. Grace’s room was black and red, walls covered in band posters and Polaroids, Betty’s room was pink and white, filled with books, movie posters and a collection of pictures of every movie or TV show she had ever been in. 

She looks over her script one more time and does a rundown of what the scene will be like in her head. 

“Places!” The director calls. 

She sits on the stool that was previously under her dresser and Toni sits on her bed in a “cross cross applesauces” manner. 

People behind her get in their destined spots. The director sits in his chair with his megaphone and a copy of the script. “And...ACTION!” 

“Grace, we gotta do something this year!” Toni brings over the compact of blush and starts acting as if she is applying the rosy makeup to my cheeks. “I refuse to sit around like a sack of potatoes our junior year!” She continues. 

“You can do anything you want, I’m not holding you back!” I protest. 

She grabs my hands and brings me upwards. “But you are! I can’t do this alone!”   
I laugh and brush her shoulder a few times. 

“Listen, I’ll do about anything but I’m not joining a sport.” 

She bites her lip and acts like she’s thinking. Placing a smirk on her face. “Then get a hunky guy!” I immediately grimace. “No.” 

“Yes! What about your neighbor?” I turn my head to the window and look at nothing. In the moment it can be weird, but it turns out to be an amazing piece of artwork in the finished product. 

“Tiff, I can’t just knock on the window and write in a notebook like Taylor Swift.” 

“No, but you can and will say hello to him.” Tiffany reminds her of Veronica because that’s exactly something she would say to her. 

“You know what, I’ll do whatever to get you to shut up.” That marks the end of the scene but they stand in silence for a few seconds. 

“CUTTT!”  
***  
They had ended up shooting the same scene two more times, and shoot four different scenes before she got a break. 

She would be expected in an hour, that meant she probably didn’t have enough time to go back to her trailer and nap, but she could sit in her cast seat. 

The room only had one other person, Jughead. 

“Long time no see.” Betty Joked. 

“How was your first scene?” He was smiling and seemingly not tired at all. 

“The first time it was fine, but the third time it got kinda boring.” 

When he looks down at his book she examines him. His posture is surprisingly on point and she’s never noticed his black fluffy hair, she almost wants to touch it. 

“How was your first time being Derek?” He makes eye contact and over exaggerates clenching his teeth into a grimace. 

“I haven’t shot anything yet, I kinda just woke up.” Betty squints her eyes at that and he’s almost convinced she’s shooting daggers at him. 

“Your saying you got two more hours of sleep than me.” His mouth falls into a line. 

“Yup, and it was the best two hours of my life!” Her dagger face returns, but it now features a tongue poking out. 

“You don’t even know how tired I’ve been!” Betty said, exaggerating the sentence out. “I’m on my third cup of coffee and I was falling asleep in my nasty ass prop food!” This is the most energetic and happy she’d been all day, maybe the coffee was setting in? She wondered. 

“I thought you were an actress who, ‘got used to not sleeping’ or whatever” he mocked. 

“You try not getting any sleep when your used to sleeping in all day!” 

Just when he opened his mouth and went to say something, Toni barged in, ordering him to go to set and film his first scene. 

“Bye babe!” Jughead threw back at her before exiting the room. 

Babe? What does babe mean? But most importantly does he say that to everyone...or just her? Betty was overthinking this, she was definitely overthinking this, but what else could she do, she was alone and only god knows what you think about when your alone, what deep dark places your mind explores. She was blaming her being alone, as the reason to why she hoped the nickname was just for her. 

***  
Veronica was waiting for Betty as soon as she walked through the door. They had first been roommates when filming for their movie and decided they really liked each other. They had then developed a plan, the only times they’d live apart is if they were filming at the same time, or if somehow one of them got a guy and wanted them to move in, thebut that’s only happened once in a span of three years, and it wasn’t even Betty who got the guy. 

“When are you moving in?” Betty asks. 

“A week? I was planning on staying the night today, is that cool with you?” 

Betty was always okay with   
Veronica staying over. It meant she didn’t have to stay alone, and ever since she was a little girl being alone freaked her out, even more so when people began coming at her door wanting an autograph or picture. 

“How was filming?” Veronica says as she begins downing some wine. 

“It was good, I really like the cast.” And like magic her phone flashed and a message from Jughead came through.   
She didn’t even have time to pick up her damn phone before Veronica started commenting on it. 

“Is it Jughead?” It’s like she could read her mind. 

“Why?” Answering a question with a question was something Betty was very good at when she wanted to avoid something. 

“Because your blushing, unless he’s talking to you about a sex scene, I’d say you like him!” Betty shook her head.

“He’s talking about the photoshoot we have in two days, and I’m not blushing, I just have a great makeup artist!” Veronica got up and pranced away, off to someplace near the hallway. “Whatever, when you and him are a thing, don’t say I didn’t know.” 

The thing that Betty knee, is that when they talk, her heart skips a beat, and when they touch, it’s like fireworks. 

Then the realization hits her like a cream pie to the face...

Veronica’s right

She likes Jughead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter, I tried to make if up by giving you all a good ending.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked the first chapter!


End file.
